§37 three heavens 21
e. The infl ow from the Lord is directly from himself and also indirectly through one heaven into
another, and the same holds true for us in regard to our more inward processes: 6063 , 6307 , 6472 ,
9682 , 9683. On the direct infl ow of divine [life] from the Lord: 6058 , 6474 – 6478 , 8717 , 8728. On
the indirect infl ow through the spiritual world into the natural world: 4067 , 6982 , 6985 , 6996.
see the people who are there, let alone talk with them. Anyone who
comes down from a higher heaven loses her or his wisdom, stammers,
and loses confi dence.
There were some people from the outmost heaven who had not yet
been taught that heaven is a matter of angels’ deeper qualities, but
believed that they would fi nd greater angelic happiness if only they were
admitted to the heaven where these angels lived. They were allowed to
visit them, but when they arrived, even though there were a great many
angels there, they did not see anyone no matter where they looked. The
deeper levels of the newcomers had not been opened at the level where
the more inward angels lived, so they had no sight. Before long, they
were seized by heart pain and eventually could scarcely tell whether they
were still alive or not. So they quickly made their way back to the heaven
they had come from, and were delighted to be among their own people.
They vowed that they would never again crave conditions that were
higher than the ones that suited their own way of life.
It is different when the Lord raises people from a lower heaven into a
higher one so that they can see its splendor, which happens quite often.
Then they are prepared in advance and provided with mediating angels
who serve as agents of communication.
We can see from all this that the three heavens are quite distinct from
each other.
However, people who live in the same heaven can associate with any- 36
one there, and their delight in getting together is in proportion to the
similarity of the values they are devoted to. There will be more about
this, though, in later chapters.
Even though the heavens are so distinct from each other that angels 37
of one heaven cannot have regular dealings with angels of another, still
the Lord unites all the heavens by means of a direct and an indirect
infl ow. The direct infl ow is from him into all the heavens, and the indi-
rect is through one heaven into another.e In this way, the Lord brings
about a unity of the three heavens. They are all linked together, from the
First to the last, so that nothing exists that is not connected. Anything